1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of mechanically or electronically correcting image blurring of a shot image caused by a shake of an image capturing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, along with a decrease in size of an image capturing apparatus and an increase in magnification of an optical system, a shake of an image capturing apparatus or the like becomes a large factor which reduces the quality of a shot image. In this regard, various image blurring correction functions of correcting image blurring of a captured image caused by a shake of an apparatus or the like are proposed.
In the image blurring correction function, if the movement of an image by a panning operation performed by a photographer to intentionally change the shooting range of the image capturing apparatus is corrected, the panning operation by the photographer is unwantedly hindered. The present applicant, therefore, proposes a function of detecting that the image capturing apparatus is in a panning state not to correct movement by a panning operation. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-147857 discloses an image capturing apparatus for detecting that it is in a panning state using a motion vector and a shake detection sensor for detecting a shake of the image capturing apparatus.
The aforementioned conventional example, however, has the following problems. While shooting is performed when a motion vector is not correctly detected, for example, while an object having a low contrast is shot, it may be impossible to correctly detect a panning operation. Furthermore, irrespective of panning detection, when a motion vector detection result is used for various other control operations, it may be impossible to correctly perform the control operations, thereby lowering the image blurring correction performance.